Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #3)

by Steven Erikson

You must dismantle your sources, Toc the Younger, lest you do nothing but ape the prejudices of others.’

Wasn't expecting to get slammed with a life lesson in a high fantasy book, but here we are and it's a good 'un.

We humans do not understand compassion. In each moment of our lives, we betray it. Aye, we know of its worth, yet in knowing we then attach to it a value, we guard the giving of it, believing it must be earned. T’lan Imass. Compassion is priceless in the truest sense of the word. It must be given freely. In abundance.